The Ken Jones Team Louisville Real Estate Blog

It’s that time of year when we start counting our blessings and begin planning for the year ahead. Thanks to our faithful customers and clients 2015 is going to be a banner year, both for me personally and for Rainey, Jones & Shaw. Once again this year we will be giving a portion of our profits to our favorite charities in the name of our buyers and sellers.

In the coming year we will be strengthened by our new partnership with Leverage Global Partners, an international real estate referral network that also offers state of the art social networking and marketing resources as well as broad national and international exposure for our listings.

As you plan for the New Year please let us know if you are contemplating a move and let us help you with a market analysis or staging ideas to make your move go smoothly. In the meantime have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Joyous Holiday Season.

Beverly Hills, CA –October 22, 2015– F. Ron Smith, President of Leverage Global Partners, recently welcomed Rainey Jones & Shaw Realtors as the Network’s exclusive member in Louisville, KY. A unique alignment of the most prestigious independent real estate brokerage firms around the world, Leverage Global Partners offers its members the opportunity to better serve their clients’ relocation and real estate portfolio needs by establishing each member firm as key players in the international real estate arena.

“We personally vet each real estate brokerage before offering them membership, so we are certain that Rainey Jones & Shaw Realtors is an innovative and forward-thinking market leader, offering exceptional service to their clients and to the communities in Jefferson County and Oldham County,” said Smith. “We are thrilled to welcome them to Leverage Global Partners.”

As a member of Leverage, Rainey Jones & Shaw Realtors will be promoted as the Network’s exclusive representative for the Louisville area, facilitating a framework in which the company can expand and compete with larger franchise networks. Through Leverage’s “Just Ask” referral program, Rainey Jones & Shaw Realtors associates are offered personal introductions and provided access to top firms around the world, ensuring them incomparable networking ability in the worldwide luxury real estate market....

This year alone, Louisville has made rankings as one of the “Most affordable Cities in the U.S.” by Forbes, of the “Best Entrepreneurial Cities” by Entrepeneur.com, one of America’s “Breakout Cities for 2014” by CNNMoney, and of the top “Creative Cities for 20-Somethings” by PolicyMic. Louisville has a lively downtown area filled with museums, galleries, and world-renowned shopping, as well as an up-and-coming indie scene, and the city is home to many annual cultural festivals, the most prominent of which is the Kentucky Derby. The races themselves come after a two-week long Kentucky Derby Festival, which features the largest annual fireworks display in the United States, along with parades, steamboat and balloon races, and various other participation events.

Living in this bustling hub is slightly more expensive than the other cities featured in this list. However, Louisville is still more affordable than the average U.S. city by nearly all parameters–the median house price is $168,600, which is about $2,000 lower than the national average. The average rent of a one-bedroom apartment is $630, which is about $135 lower a month than the average apartment in the country, and the cost-of-living index score is 6 points below that of the U.S. as a whole. Combined with the median household income of over $61,000, you might even have money left over to bet on the races!

Louisvillians have a lot to be proud of. There are the bourbon and the horses, of course, but there’s also one of the country’s only urban forests, a 389-acre park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. (It’s like a miniature Central Park, but more laid back.) There’s a burgeoning bike-trail system, much of which parallels the Ohio River, and the city hosted the Cyclocross World Championship in 2013.

But what the population of 605,000 may be most proud of is Louisville’s future. “There are so many cool things in the works,” says Derek Fetko, a road and mountain biker. “The biggest is the Parklands of Floyds Fork,” a 4,000-acre park being developed right outside town.

By the end of 2015, expect 19 miles of greenway and a bike park with flow trails and pump tracks. Can’t wait? Fetko recommends Cherokee Park’s ten-mile, in-town mountain-bike system, known for its rolling hills and technical sections.

If you’re a runner, head to Jefferson Memorial Forest, 6,527 acres of wilderness with 35 miles of trails. Then refuel at Holy Grale, an old church that’s been converted into a gastropub that Fetko says serves the best burger in town, and wash it all down with—what else?—a good bourbon. —G.A.